2011 Kia Optima will be featured in a Super Bowl ad in February

According to the latest reports from Automotive News, it appears that Kia will tout the all-new 2011 Optima sedan in a Super Bowl ad in February. Kia will follow the same strategy used when it introduced the 2010 Kia Sorento crossover, which was also included in a Super Bowl ad.

According to Michael Sprague, vice president of marketing for Kia Motors America, it appears that the Korean manufacturer already completed the creative work for the campaign but no details were revealed yet. Kia will start cinema ads next month.

“We saw with the Sorento launch that it really helped build the awareness of the vehicle,” said Michael Sprague, vice president of marketing for Kia Motors America. Kia expects to sell 25,000 Optimas this year, but this is bad news as this means that the sales will be down from peaks of around 50,000 in the past.

According to Tom Loveless, Kia's U.S. sales boss, the 2011 Optima might exceed sales of the Sorento model.

For those who don’t know, the Sorento crossover is currently Kia’s best seller with sales totaling 89,561 units through October. [via autonews - sub. required]

Today, manual transmissions have become rare in mainstream cars and are more commonly found in performance cars within the $20,000 to $40,000 range. However, the selection of affordable, three-pedal performance...